Peter Tilton Esq (1620 - 1696)

Born 2 Apr 1620 in Wolston, Warwickshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Unknown) Tilton — married 10 May 1641 in Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut Colony

Husband of Mary (Unknown) Tilton — married after 1665 in Hadley, Hampshire, Colony Massachusetts

Husband of Sarah (Heald) Tilton — married 3 Nov 1690 in Springfield, Hampshire, Province of Massachusetts Bay

Descendants

Died 11 Jul 1696 at age 76 in Hadley, Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay

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Peter Tilton Esq migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Directory, by R. C. Anderson, p. 337) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

Peter Tilton bp 2 APR 1620 Wolston, Warwickshire, England son of William Tilton. ^[1]

Peter Tilton was deacon in the Church, Recorder of Hadley, Rep to the General Court, Assoc. Judge of the County and Assistant of the Colony. He was a staunch whig, a man of God. A man of great influence in church and state. He was also one of those who assisted in Concealing the Regicides of Charles I. Mary Tilton Feb. 8, 1649 Windsor CT - 1692 Hadley, Hampshire was the daughter of Hon. Peter Tilton and Elizabeth Fray. Mary married Joseph Eastman on 1682 In Hadley, Hampshire County, MA Ref. page 230 Vol. 21, 1867, Some new directions in linguistics by Some new directions in linguistics By New England Historic Genealogical Society Staff (under Genealogy of the Eastman family)

Deacon Peter Tilton, died at Hadley, Mass., 11 July 1696. page 678-9 Hale, House, and related families, mainly of the Connecticut ... Jacobus, Donald Lines, 1887-1970. ^[2]

Arrival 1640 Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut ^[3]

...married second, 21 Feb. 1676 [1676/7], Deacon Benjamin Parsons, who died at Springfield, 24 Aug. 1689; and third, at Springfield, 3 Nov. 1690, Deacon Peter Tilton, who died at Hadley, Mass., 11 July 1696. page 678-9 Hale, House, and related families, mainly of the Connecticut ... Jacobus, Donald Lines, 1887-1970. ^[4]

Research Note:

Some individuals who yearn to see their own ancestors connected with aristocracy have seized on the mention that Peter Tilton was styled an “armiger” and thus had a coat of arms or connection with some knightly or noble family.

The reality is more prosaic. As we see here, for decades, Peter Tilton held numerous civic and judicial offices in the Massachusetts Bay Company, and between 1681 and 1686 he was named one of the “Most Worshipful Assistants” to the governor.^[5] These higher offices usually carried with them the automatic honorific of Esquire: “esquire by office.” ^[6]

In 1683, King Charles II, being displeased with the activities of the Massachusetts Bay colony, mostly concerning coinage, issued a royal writ quo warranto, charging the governor and the company to account for their actions or risk losing their charter. This writ named not only the governor, Symon Bradstreet, but all thirty of the Assistants by name, including Peter Tilton, who held the office in that year. The writ was in Latin, and thus addressed him as Petru Tylton, ar. (armiger) ^[7] Which is to say: “esquire” in that language. In fact, most but not all of the Assistants named in the writ were called Esquire, and the term designates no more than that they were or had been officeholders in the colonial administration, no noble deeds of arms.

Sources

1. ↑ https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/2416/4291942_00503?pid=3238935
2. ↑ https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89066151523;view=1up;seq=700
3. ↑ https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/59016579/person/48240705231/facts?ssrc= citing GMDIR p 337; Unknown; 1640; Windsor, Hadley [Grant 67; Phoebe Tilton Anc 12-16]
4. ↑ https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89066151523;view=1up;seq=700
5. ↑ Tilton, Francis Theodore. History of the Tilton Family in America, p. 30. 1927.
6. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esquire
7. ↑ Massachusetts Colonial Records, vol. V, p. 421. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112004068570&view=1up&seq=439

See also:

• Matthew Grant, Some early records and documents of and relating to the town of Windsor, Connecticut, 1639-1703 ( Hartford, Connecticut historical society, 1930) p. 67.
• Barbara B. Marden, "Descendants of William Tilton of Lynn, Massachusetts through the line of his son, Daniel Tilton" The Essex Genealogist, (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2018.) Reference Volume 7 (1987), page 129 via $American Ancestors. Shows that Peter was William's son
• http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=5111977&pid=3501 (NOTE: No longer available May 28, 2023)